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“At some point it’s theorized that the sheer power of computation can mimic if not reproduce the ramdomness and variability of conscious thoughts.”
including Rob’s?
dibs, if I remember when I used to pay more attention to the tech industry, that super-computers as an investment never seemed to work out. The companies like Cray had a high overhead with lots of highly paid engineers and there machines ran on proprietary chips and software. The machines were expensive and had limited markets, usually guvment and big oil.
Which was fine, but at the same time they were coming under pricing pressure from the PC and mainframe companies who were stringing together massive arrays of Intel chips running open software, like Sun Solaris.
I don’t know if this has changed. If you find out differently, pls let us know 🙂
thanks for the analysis of europe. I believe that recent events point to an underlying problem in European assimiliation of immigrants. It appears that many remain isolated from the main culture even after a generation of living within it.
benson,
what do you think of the idea of a computer which reaches the point of almost conscious thought.
At some point it’s theorized that the sheer power of computation can mimic if not reproduce the ramdomness and variability of conscious thoughts.
There’s a thriving trade in Cray Research memorobilia on ebay… when I used to collect photo monographs Lee Friedlander had done a work on Cray called ‘Cray at Chippewa Falls’. Unbeknownst to him Cray put out a small brochure of the work ahead of time that I found on ebay and later had Friedlander sign. He told me that he had only been aware the item for a year! Made a nice pair when I sold it at auction…
Yes, denton. I’m reading about its performance at one petaflop!!!! I have no clue what a petaflop is. Oak Ridge bought it for a quantum chemistry problem!!!
dibs, CRAY has been thru several iterations, spin-offs, and owners, not the same as the old Cray Research, altho they currently have the world’s fastest super-computer, I believe.
“At some point it’s theorized that the sheer power of computation can mimic if not reproduce the ramdomness and variability of conscious thoughts.”
including Rob’s?
dibs, if I remember when I used to pay more attention to the tech industry, that super-computers as an investment never seemed to work out. The companies like Cray had a high overhead with lots of highly paid engineers and there machines ran on proprietary chips and software. The machines were expensive and had limited markets, usually guvment and big oil.
Which was fine, but at the same time they were coming under pricing pressure from the PC and mainframe companies who were stringing together massive arrays of Intel chips running open software, like Sun Solaris.
I don’t know if this has changed. If you find out differently, pls let us know 🙂
tyburg6,
thanks for the analysis of europe. I believe that recent events point to an underlying problem in European assimiliation of immigrants. It appears that many remain isolated from the main culture even after a generation of living within it.
benson,
what do you think of the idea of a computer which reaches the point of almost conscious thought.
At some point it’s theorized that the sheer power of computation can mimic if not reproduce the ramdomness and variability of conscious thoughts.
There’s a thriving trade in Cray Research memorobilia on ebay… when I used to collect photo monographs Lee Friedlander had done a work on Cray called ‘Cray at Chippewa Falls’. Unbeknownst to him Cray put out a small brochure of the work ahead of time that I found on ebay and later had Friedlander sign. He told me that he had only been aware the item for a year! Made a nice pair when I sold it at auction…
Denton;
Hitachi has basically left the mainframe computer business (I know something aboht this ;-).
DIBS;
A petaflop means that it runs 10^16 calculations PER SECOND.
At the conference I attended last week I heard a statement that the human brain performs this many calculations too.
Here is a list of the top 500 supercomputers in the world:
http://www.top500.org/
benson, wasn’t Hitatchi always way up there in super-computing? Or did they give up?
Yes, denton. I’m reading about its performance at one petaflop!!!! I have no clue what a petaflop is. Oak Ridge bought it for a quantum chemistry problem!!!
dibs, CRAY has been thru several iterations, spin-offs, and owners, not the same as the old Cray Research, altho they currently have the world’s fastest super-computer, I believe.